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Healthy Body

No smoking zone

February 26, 2015

The National Tobacco Control Office released figures in the past week on the figures of smoking habits in Ireland.

The study showed that the number of smokers in 2014 dropped by approximately 70,000 and the uptake of QUIT Team support doubled, according to the HSE website. Can we give them a round of applause please?

QUIT team was invented by the HSE in an effort to decrease smoking habits in Ireland. This organization works offering support through social media, telephone, instant messaging and so on.

“We also provide a network of face-to face QUIT services in many locations around the country, who provided cessation support to 8,459 quitters in 2014” comments Dave Molloy, National Tobacco Lead for the HSE.

Although developments are happening, there still remains over 700,000 smokers. If in the past ten years, 70,000 quit, then 2015 should be the drive that inflates this number so that more than a tenth of smokers quit. Tobacco related deaths stand at 5,200 annually.

Smoking amongst people aged 15 onwards has been reduced from 28% in 2003 to 19.5% in 2014, a huge development in the past decade. This figure fell by 2% in the past two years which is an excellent sign of progress. It seems the image of smoking has transformed from being ‘cool’, ‘grown up’ and attractive to one of being a bad habit, putting your health at risk and not a symbol of adulthood.

‘Ireland has shown great leadership in Tobacco Control, from the Smoke-Free Workplace and Point-of-Sale legislation, to upcoming plans to introduce standardised packaging and protect children from secondhand smoke in cars.

We also show leadership in the strength of our public campaigns and our integrated support services to help smokers to quit.

Our QUIT campaign ads featuring Gerry Collins have inspired over 200,000 quit attempts since last year, and have been used as a model for similar campaigns in the UK.’ continues Molloy.

The study shows that on average 12.71 cigarettes are smoked per day in Ireland. Dublin has the highest percentage of smokers at 31.2%. 18-24 year olds have the highest smoking rates at 27.3% with teenagers between the ages of 15-17 reaching 7.9%.

As any smoker or friend of a smoker will know, ditching the habit is not as simple as reading a self-help book, doing yoga and smacking a nicotine patch on. These figures are excellent encouragement that people are quitting every day and that you can too. Contact details for QUIT are listed below along with a link to the original report.